‘Jeopardy! Masters’: Juveria Zaheer Speaks Out After Shocking Final Wager

Jeopardy! Masters contestant Juveria Zaheer made a risky Final Jeopardy wager that cost her the game. She explained why she did it on Reddit.

Paolo Pasco and Yogesh Raut are tied at the top with four points, followed by Victoria Groce and Zaheer with three. Then, Andrew He and Long Nguyen were tied with one.

Groce, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Nguyen, from Las Vegas, Nevada, and He, from San Francisco, California, played in the first Quarterfinals game on August 27, which was actually the fifth game in the tournament. Here’s how their game played out.

Andrew He found the Daily Double on clue six. The stay-at-home dad had 2,800 points and wagered all of it.

The clue in “Classical Compositions” was “Debussy took this title of a piano movement from a Verlaine poem that begins, ‘Your soul is as a moonlit landscape fair.'” “What is Clair de Lune?” he answered correctly. This gave him 5,600 points.

By the second-to-last clue, Groce, a writer and speaker, took the lead. She ended the round with 8,000. He had 5,800 points. Nguyen, a retired engineer, was in third place with 2,800. Groce’s score changed to 9,600 when Jeopardy! determined that one of her answers was correct.

In Double Jeopardy, Nguyen found the first DD on clue one. He wagered all of his money in “Science & Scientists.” The clue read, “Oblivious sharks & hungry remoras have this symbiotic relationship, partly from Latin for ‘table.'”

“What is commensalism?” he answered correctly. This gave him 5,600 points, only 200 away from He.

He had 7,800 points when he found the second DD on clue five. He wagered 6,000 in “Rate Middle-X.” The clue was “Synonyms for this include center, core & union.”

“I don’t have it,” He said. The correct response was Nexus. He dropped to third place with 1,800 points.

Groce ended the round with 15,600. Nguyen was in second with 8,000 points. He had 4,600.

The Final Jeopardy category was “World Languages.” The clue was “One of 34 official languages of the Eu, this island tongue spoken by 500,000 is a form of Arabic written in the Latin alphabet.”

“What is Maltese?” He answered correctly. He wagered 4,000 points, giving him 8,600.

Nguyen also had the correct response. He wagered 7,601, giving him 15,601. Groce also had the right answer. She wagered 401 points, taking her to 16,001.

This gave her three more points, giving her six. Nguyen got one, making his total two. He received zero and remained at one.

Disney/Christopher Willard

The second, or sixth game, went down between Zaheer, from Whitby, Ontario, Canada, Raut, from Vancouver, Washington, and Pasco, from San Diego, California. Fans were shocked by their final wagers.

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Raut, a specialist in applied cognition, found the Daily Double on clue 12. He had the lead with 2,800 points and wagered all of it.

The clue in “Have a Seat” read, “Two animals that don’t typically get along combine in this folksy term meaning a position of great advantage.” “What is the cat bird seat?” he answered correctly. This gave him 5,600 points.

Raut ended with 7,600 points. Pasco, a puzzle writer, had 4,800. Zaheer, a psychiatrist, was in third place with 2,600.

In Double Jeopardy, Pasco found the first DD on clue seven. H had 6,000 points and wagered all of them.

The clue in “Our Favorite Rhymes” was “In this work, the irrepressible Mr. Gilbert rhymed ‘ring the merry bell on board ship’ with ‘for the union of his lordship.'” Pasco answered, “What is HMS Pinafore?” which was correct. This gave him 12,000 points, only 3,200 behind Raut.

A few clues later, Raut found the DD. He had 16,400 and wagered 6,000 in “Elementary, My Dear Masters.”

The clue was “The Soviets wanted to name element 104 Kurchatovium: the Americans got it called this, after a physicist & royal society president.” “Um, what is Curium?” he answered.

The correct response was “Rutherfordium.” This dropped Raut down to 10,400, tying him with Pasco.

He ended the round in the lead with 15,600. Pasco was in second place with 11,200. Zaheer had 9,800.

The category for Final Jeopardy was “Literary Names.” The clue read, “A literary friendship began when these 2 mt in Florence in 1350; the death of one in 1374 inspired a sonnet by the other.”

Zaheer’s response was “Who is Chaucer & Petrarch?” She was only half correct and wagered all of her money, giving her zero.

Pasco wrote, “Who indeed!” He wagered 6,401, giving him 4,799. Raut’s response was “Who is Dante and Petrarch?” He wagered 6,801, making his total 8,799.

The correct response was Petrarch and Boccaaccio. Raut received three points, giving him seven. Pasco got one, making his total five. Zaheer received zero, leaving her with three.

Disney/Christopher Willard

Raut is at the top of the leaderboard, followed by Groce. Then, Pasco and Zaheer are next. Nguyen and then He round out the leaderboard. The top four will advance. Tune in to the seventh and eighth games on Friday, August 28.

Zaheer explained her wager on Reddit after fans questioned why she bet all of her money. “Noooo. Why didn’t Juveria bet 0 in final? Shouldn’t she know better?” one fan asked.

“As soon as I saw those scores, if I had been Juveria there’s no way I’d have bet anything,” another said.

“You know the top 2 are going to bet big. A zero wager means you win if it’s a hard one. It was a hard one. And yet Javaria wagered to “out bet” 2 players that can’t be done, unless they both miss!” a fan replied.

Zaheer explained herself on the thread. “I had zero written down on my paper; but then I thought Paolo would bet 0, or at most 1399, so the only way for me to win would be to go ahead of him. But if I went ahead of him, I fall behind Yogesh anyway on a triple stumper, so needed to get it right anyway, so went all in; it was a category I loved. I suppose I could have split the difference and gone in the 1000 dollar range, but that doesn’t protect against the zero bet,” she said.

Jeopardy! Masters, Tuesdays through Fridays through September 8, 8/7, ABC